Synopsis

(from Goodreads)Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

My review

I have only read some contemporary YA, science fiction/fantasy appeals to me more. Also, I work at a high school, so reading about teenagers in all their angst is not entirely appealing to me.

This, though, skews a little older (characters are in college, rather than high school), and it is such a beautifully written book: it grabbed me right from the start.

The heroine was awesome (she plays the upright bass, for pete’s sake!), and the hero is very crush-worthy. The book deals with a very difficult topic, but I thought it was done well, and appreciated the humor included throughout.

I don’t think the official synopsis entirely does the book justice: it makes the hero sound kind of stalker-ish, and it really isn’t that creepy!

My only quibble is the rampant underage drinking and promiscuity. I know I’m old and that all of this is probably entirely accurate, this reaction is probably more on the lines of wishing the world weren’t this way, rather than a gripe about the book itself.

I also liked that it wasn’t just a happily-ever-after kind of an ending: it ended happily, but acknowledges that the end of this story is really the beginning of the rest of the characters’ lives.

Giveaway

I won this book myself, and thought I’d share the wealth. The Rafflecopter giveaway is open to US addresses only.